Seniors

Time course of allocation of visual attention after equating for sensory differences: an age-related perspective

Article Abstract:

Two experiments were conducted to examine adult age differences in the time course of the allocation of visual attention. In the spatial-cuing task, an age-related decline in sensory processing is evident, but attentional allocation did not slow down or decline as a result of aging. Results of Experiment 1 showed that older adults accumulated information about target identity more slowly than younger adults. For Experiment 2, the two age groups had comparable performance both in the baseline condition and in the time course of attention.

Adult age differences in the use of distractor homogeneity during visual search

Article Abstract:

Two conjunction search experiments using rectangular and circular displays, respectively, show that both younger and older adults use similar search strategy in the conjunction search. The higher reaction time for older subjects indicates age-related slowing in rate of search. For both age groups, the rate of search is more rapid for displays with homogeneous distractors than for those with heterogeneous distractors. Subjects follow a serial, self-terminating search strategy on heterogeneous noise trials.

In a conjunction form of visual search, older adults are as successful as younger adults in using colour, one feature of the display item, to guide attention to a target-relevant subset. In conjunction search, the most difficult search condition, there was a relatively greater likelihood of older adults missing a target. A signal-detection model of the conjunction search data shows that the age difference represented an age-related drop in target detectability.